Review: Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy is the first book in Richelle’s Mead’s very promising Vampire Academy Series. While this is Richelle Mead’s debut Young Adult novel, it is definitely a blend of supernatural fantasy and high school intrigue. In the novel, there 3 kinds of supernatural beings, Moroi, mortal vampires with magical powers, Strigoi, evil immortal vampires, who feed and Moroi, turning them into Strigoi, and Dhampirs who are half-vampire and half-human and are tasked with the protection of the Moroi from the Strigoi.

In Vampire Academy, protagonist Rose Hathaway and her best friend Lissa Dragomir are caught and forced to return to St. Vladimir’s Academy from which they had run away from two years past, a school and training facility for both Moroi and Dhampirs. Lissa is a Moroi royal princess and is thus Very Very Important in both Moroi rank as well as the complex social circles generally found in high schools all over the world. Rose is a Dhampir and has dedicated her life to protecting Lissa, undergoing Dhampir training in St. Vladimir. Rose has to deal with protecting Lissa, even as Lissa begins to display a rare form of elemental power, and both girls have to deal with romance, intrigue, jealousy and forbidden temptation as Rose begins to fall for her handsome instructor Dimitri. Not to mention what had made them run away in the first place. Lissa is a prime target for the Strigoi, who want to turn her into one of them, while possible enemies hide behind friendly faces. The book culminates in the revelation of a baddie within the Moroi royals, while Lissa and her friends survive a near-death situation and Rose almost! scores with Dimitri.

While this book is definitely aimed at tweens, it is well written, with detailed action scenes and characters that are well fleshed out. Rose is likable as a smart-mouthed, rebellious student, and the witty conversation between their circle of friends is rather refreshing as is Rose’s absolute loyalty to Lissa, which can seem rather dog-like at times. The whole ‘bond’ and emotion-sharing between Lissa and Rose is a device that a tad overused in this genre, but it does seem rather relevant to the main plot in the whole series.  Revelation of Lissa’s specialisation in the ‘fifth’ element does make her seem rather Mary Sue-ish, and her character really irritates me, with the whole helpless, whiny, fragile and prone to crying sort of female character. And her Emo-ness! Although it does make the contrast between her and Rose, who only has her strength and training, stand out more, so it’s forgivable, while Dimitri is the usual guy with a hinted-at tragic past. The teacher-student relationship between him and Rose here is just juicy!

The Vampire Academy series looks to be promising and way more enjoyable than the House of Night series by PC and Kristin Cast. Good for fans who enjoy the supernatural high school genre.

See also: Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound

Plot/originality: 3.5/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3.5/5

Total score: 10/15

Review: Black Dawn (Night World)

Black Dawn is the 8th book in the Night World series by L. J. Smith. The story starts when protagonist Maggie Neely is awakened at 2.11 am by her mother’s hysterics and finds out that her brother Miles was presumed dead in a  hiking trip. Maggie finds Sylvia’s (Mile’s girlfriend) story suspicious and decides to follow her, still in her pajamas and mismatched red and blue socks. Of course, her investigation  into her brother’s whereabouts lands her in trouble and she ends up in a slave wagon courtesy of Sylvia’s witchy incenses. The slave wagon, with a whole load of kidnapped girls,  is en route to a hidden kingdom in the Night World, where the young vampire prince Delos Redfern just so happens to be her soulmate and a Wild Power. Maggie has to deal with cold Delos who seems so different from the kind version in her dreams, help out her fellow slaves, where among her companions is the most valuable Aradia,  the Maiden of the Witches, and  look for her brother in the meantime. Not to mention baddie Hunter Redfern’s evil plans for his great grandson’s Wild Power.

Slave trade, shapeshifter, witch and vampire trouble, as well as a most cracktastic savior prophecy based on Maggie’s mismatched socks make this a most entertaining read. This one isn’t exactly urban fantasy, since besides the first chapter, everything else that happens once Maggie has been kidnapped by the slave traders is pretty much medieval. I mean, riding horses and falconing? Chamberpots! Most of the action happens in the hidden kingdom, hence the medievalness. Delos is the typcial vampire prince character, cold on outside and soft on the inside (he kind of sounds like ice cream). While the slave abuse and torture is a little clichéd, Maggie’s spunk and compassion comes clearly through and has readers rooting for her throughout the journey. The ending is L. J. Smith’s usual fluff and Maggie does find her brother eventually, with a nice twist at the end. Black Dawn is one of the better books in the Night World series and definitely recommended reading.

See also: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Enchantress/Spellbinder, Dark Angel, Soulmate, The Chosen, Huntress, Witchlight

Plot/originality: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing style: 3.5/5

Total score: 11.5/15

Review: The Chosen (Night World)

The Chosen is Book 5 in the Night World series by L. J. Smith and definitely one of the better reads in the series.  The protagonist, Rashel Jordan, is a sassy vampire hunter. When she was a child, she saw Hunter Redfern, master vampire of the Night World, feed on her brother, kidnap him and kill her mother. She ended up escaping unscathed in a most ingenious way, by framing Hunter Redfern for molestation! I loved that scene. I quote, ” “Help meeee! Help meeee! That man tried to touch me!” Poor Hunter Redfern. Serves him right for hunting near a playground.

Rashel grows up to be a  vampire hunter known as The Cat, who leaves her mark on her kills, a cat’s scratch mark using a backscratcher! One night when hunting with a group of other vampire hunters, they capture Quinn, a notoriously dangerous vampire who happens to be Hunter Redfern’s ex-son-in-law and the Redfern heir. Rashel can’t bring herself to kill him even though he is dangerous, and even lets him go, saving him from torture at the hands of the other hunters. She ends up regretting this when she encounters a girl running from vampire slave traders who are capturing girls for a “bloodfeast” event, something like a vampire buffet. Not surprisingly, Quinn just so happens to be involved. Rashel uses herself as bait and allows herself to be captured in order to save the girls. She and the other girls are then taken to an island where the bloodfeast is to be held, and she manages effect a rescue, with the help of Quinn who ends up being converted because (and who didn’t see this coming?) of their soulmate bond. After creating loads of fire and mayhem, they all escape, including Timmy, her missing brother who Hunter Redfern turned (paedo!), leaving Hunter Redfern and the rest of the vampires to roast.

I just love the tension between Rashel and Quinn in all of their meetings, and Rashel is totally kickass and way cooler than all those ‘ordinary girl’ heriones. Quinn had the usual traumatic past, but is way too ruthless and does way too many bad things to be a GaryStu. They definitely deserve each other. I quite liked Hunter Redfern the villain and I wish there had been more focus on him since he does have a sort of major reputation in the Night World.

Read this, it’s good!

See also: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Enchantress/Spellbinder, Dark Angel, Soulmate,  Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight

Plot/originality: 3.5/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing style: 4/5

Total score: 11.5/15

Review: Enchantress / Spellbinder (Night World)

Enchantress, or Spellbinder in some editions, is the third book in the Night World series by L. J. Smith. This book is basically one big catfight between two witch cousins, brought up to be as close as sisters, which obviously doesn’t count for much when you’re fighting over a guy. Typical good girl vs bad girl. Thea is the goody-two shoes who rescues animals while Blaise is the evil witch who treats guys like toys and is the one responsible for their 5 explusions from high school so far. The book begins with their first day at a new school where Thea rescues a rattlesnake from being stoned and saves a cute boy, Eric Ross, from a poisionous snake bite. Eric is the epitome of do-gooderness, captain of various sports teams, aspiring veterinarian and animal-lover. He also happens to be Thea’s soulmate. When Thea ends up falling for Eric, she (stupidly) tells Blaise, who then like any other self-respecting Night Worlder, feels that she has to protect her beloved cousin from the lower life form (Eric) by getting rid of him. Desperate, Thea ends up accidentally summoning a pissed-off spirit from the underworld who kills her victims in a typical asian-horror flick way, strangling with long hair. Cue mass mayhem and eventually everyone gets caught. Thea has to answer for her actions to the Inner Circle of the witches who happen to be in the area, choosing to have her memory erased so she can live with Eric as a human and Blaise saves the day with iced tea!

While the plot may be a tad idiotic, Enchantress is overall a fun read, with the universal catfight by girls over a guy, witch-style! Surprisingly, or not, Thea ends up causing the most trouble with her evil spirit summoning, which came about in a totally crack! way, while Blaise is totally lovable with her bad-ass persona and human-despising ways. Eric is totally 2D, but he’s not the main character anyway, so it’s all good.

See also: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Dark Angel, Soulmate, The Chosen, Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight

Plot/originality: 2.5/5

Characters: 3.5/5

Writing style: 4/5

Total score: 10/15

Review: Soulmate (Night World)

Soulmate is the 6th book in L. J. Smith’s Night World series, and by far the lamest. The soulmated pair in this one is Thierry Descouedres, a vampiric Lord of the Night World and Hannah Snow, a girl who seems ordinary in every way other than that she writes notes to herself - notes with disturbing contents such as ‘dead before seventeen’. Of course Hannah isn’t ordinary - she’s an Old Soul, a soul that keeps on reincarnating through the ages, and she’s known Thierry from a long, long time ago (animal skins!! And stone knives! Since we do still wear animal skins).

Their tale isn’t all lovey-dovey, naturally. Hannah has been seemingly killed by Thierry in all her past incarnations, except that it isn’t actually Thierry but Maya, Thierry’s ex, wearing an illusion. Hell hath no fury like a vampire scorned, I must say. Maya also happens to be THE original vampire, and ex-witch, turned that way in her search for immortality (an obvious success!) way back in the near-caveman era via a few baby-killings. Hannah is by far the wimpiest female protagonist in the NW series. She vacillates between believing Thierry and Maya and at the beginning, was actually seeing a therapist to solve her note-writing problem.  An idiotic therapist whose only role in the book is to shoot a couple of bullets and to hypnotise Hannah showing her her past lives. Her disbelief/denial will totally kill you. Even the therapist believed something was going on.

This story is just too contrived and only L. J. Smith’s superb writing style could have saved it from dreariness. The one highlight would be the appearance of the soulmate pairs of the previous 5 books of the series with their interactions really livening up the far-fetched plot. Improbable elements in this book are everywhere, from the whole reincarnation thing to the hypnotism actually working and her past lives are so.. far-fetched! (Three Rivers shaman-trainee? Egyptian priestess? Puh-lease), to Maya’s unbelievable jealousy. I mean if you’re THE first vampire, with the jadedness that the ages bring, I doubt you’ll keep harping on some failed relationship, and be so unhinged as to track your so-called love rival through centuries. I would have just found another expendable boy-toy already. While we’re on this topic,  I doubt it would have really taken Maya a couple hundred or more years to ‘discover’ that vampires don’t reincarnate and hence to break the ‘cycle’, all she would have to do is turn Hannah then stake her. Also, plot resolution was crap, I mean, a random lackey just randomly deciding to betray Maya by telling Thierry their location? and Maya was dispatched with way too much ease, just a casual stabbing by a lump of rock? So much for being the mother of all vamps. Thierry could probably have killed her a few lifetimes ago. WHERE IS THE LOGIC AND SENSE? Not to mention, Thierry is so two-dimensional! All angst and no action.

Not highly recommended, but I guess you can read it anyway, if only because it’s part of the Night World series. Just read it for the few pages of Ash/ James/ Poppy/ Rashel/ Quinn/ Thea/ Eric/ Gillian/ David cameo appearances in Thierry’s cool and really expensive mansion.

See also: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Enchantress/Spellbinder, Dark Angel, The Chosen,  Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight

Plot/originality: 1.5/5

Characters: 2.5/5

Writing style: 3/5

Total score: 7/15

Review: Secret Vampire (Night World)

Secret Vampire is the very first book in the Night World series by L. J. Smith and was published over 10 years ago. It serves as an introduction for us to the ‘Night World’ created by Smith, which is a secret society of vampires, witches, shapeshifters and werewolves that live among human society, with 2 main laws: 1) Never let them find out that the Night World exsists and, 2) Never fall in love with one of them. Secret Vampire (and basically every other NW book), showcases what happens when these laws are broken.

The female protagonist of Secret Vampire is Poppy, a normal teenager who is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the beginning of the book. It is incurable, and she has only  months to live. Poppy doesn’t want to die, and her best friend James, a vampire reciprocating romantic feelings for Poppy, offers to make her a vampire in order to save her life, thus majorly breaking both rules. The  consequences of the rule-breaking is heightened by the fact that James is related to the Redfern family, one of  the most influential vampire families in the Night World. Poppy takes James up on his offer - cue blood-exchanging, activation of the soulmate bond, complications with overprotective brother Phil who tends to walk in at inopportune times, and fake-death planning. Poppy is succesfully turned but holds an illegal vampire status, endangering both her and James. Throw in an inopportune visit by Ash Redfern, Jame’s ruthless vampiric cousin and Poppy ends up tricked and halfway to exposure at a Night World gathering before displaying telepathic powers that save the day. She and her brother Phil are finally revealed to be lost witches on their father’s side, thus having rightful NightWorlder status and they happily go off to live with Poppy’s father.

I loved the characterisation of Poppy, in her journey through her terminal diagnosis and her subsequent choice to become a vampire.  She realistically chooses to become a vampire after careful consideration and balancing the conseuquences of cutting ties with her family, with her will to live coming out top, instead of just the typical MarySue character who just chooses in a flash. Her interactions with her family members as well as descriptions of grief and coping mechanisms are well written. James, on the other hand, shows various Gary-Stu characteristics, such as an overtly noble character, human-loving unlike the rest of his typical human-despising family, and he even comes complete with a  traumatic childhood event! But he does serve as a useful tool to provide insights and information into Night World society. Ash just comes across as the typcial mysterious badboy model vampire that keeps us guessing about his intentions. Forgivable, considering this book isn’t about him.

The plot resolution was a tad lame, considering James’ eventual punishment was hinted to have been pretty dire. They went from exiles-pending death to non-law breakers in a few sentences flat, just based on Poppy’s family tree. Still, whatever works to give the requisite fluffy happy ending. Not exactly the best book in the series, but still recommended.

See also: Daughters of Darkness, Enchantress/Spellbinder, Dark Angel, The Chosen, Soulmate, Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight

Plot/originality: 3/5

Characters: 3.5/5

Writing style: 3.5/5

Total score: 10/15

Review: Iron Kissed

Iron Kissed is Book 3 in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Following the love triangle with Adam and Samuel in Moon Called and Blood Bound, Mercy finally makes her decision between the two. Romance aside, plot-wise, in Iron Kissed, Mercy’s ex-boss Zee, aka Siebold Adelbertsmiter (cool name.) asks her help in investigating several murders on the Fae reservation, pretty much using her like a sort of police dog, with her useful coyote nose. Mercy eventually sifts out the scent of the murderer, but in the course of her investigation, Zee has been framed for murder, and with him being so important to Mercy and all, she decides to stick her coyote nose into the whole business, with very bad consequences.

Mercy has previously been portrayed with her share of weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the first two books, although nothing really bad ends up happing to her. However, in this book, Mercy really gets screwed up. I could barely bring myself to read the book through to the end, but retrospectively, I think I rather like it. Ok guys, spoiler alert! Mercy gets raped by the baddie! Briggs deals admirably with both the event and the aftermath, realistically portraying the emotional and physical trauma faced by Mercy.

I liked this plot event since it serves as a reminder of reality, that help will not always get there in time, even for heroines and Mercy certainly isn’t a textbook heroine, but very humanly vulnerable. That doesn’t exactly make reading through it easier though, even if we get spared gruesome details. I laud Briggs for her willingness to tread into dangerous territory and for not overdoing the aftermath angst, though Mercy is mostly in shock, and also not having Mercy make a miraculously recovery(because who walks away from something like this unscathed?), but going through the normal stages of acceptance and recovery.

See also: Moon Called, Blood Bound, Bone Crossed

Plot/originality: 3.5/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Total score: 9.5/15

 

Review: Huntress (Night World)

Huntress is Book 7 in the Night World series by L. J. Smith and incidentally, the first Night World book I ever read. I picked it up years ago from a dusty library shelf and never looked back. As a first foray into vampire fiction, the Night World series is really good and I despaired for years not knowing if book 10 would finally appear. Now that L. J. Smith has finally gotten off her ass (10 year hiatus !) and decided to conclude the series with Strange Fate (Book 10 coming out in 2010), I felt an urge to reread the whole series again.

While Huntress follows L.J. Smith’s generic formula of the everlasting conflict between the dark and the light, concepts represented in the Night World by various ‘Circles’ to which supernatural creatures such as vampires, witches, shapeshifters and even humans belong too, (all of which are mostly youthful and hot/pretty), there is also talk of a final battle, of which the fate of the world will be decided by four Wild Powers, who are mentioned in prophecy and are thus naturally wanted by both sides of the conflict.

Note: If you follow the series sequence and read, you will find that the Redferns (the top vampire family) are a recurring theme in the books, with most main characters somehow related to them. They also somehow have a predisposition for the Soulmate ‘curse’.

Huntress revolves around Jezebel Redfern, a half-vampire who turned her backs on the vampire gang she once led once she found out about her true heritage. She eventually ends up joining Circle Daybreak, the general ‘good guys’ in the series that advocate inter-species harmony and is tasked to find one of the Wild Powers mentioned in prophecy the could change the fate of the world. Unfortunately she isn’t the only one after the elusive Wild Power and the resulting course of events brings her face-to-face with Morgead, her ex-gang-second-in-command and requisite love interest. The tension between them is wonderfully portrayed, and the emotions both feel are very complicatedly human, with Morgead’s natural hate for humans, betrayal, hurt, love etc. I just love their relationship. L. J. Smith has  very successfully created a both realistic and magical ‘Night World’ with their clubs and secret flower symbols, enmeshing it seamlessly with the human world we know. Jezebel’s conflict as half-vampire could have turned out trite and cliched, but didn’t, and for that I am grateful. In fact, it was quite humourous to follow her attempts to balance her nightly ‘business’ with normal human life, with the dead-ghoul-in-bedroom-scene  just to die for. Action-wise, the fighting scenes are nicely written and not too gory. Fluff-wise, well, every L.J.Smith book has a happy ending (or so it says on her website). It’s true though, this is a feel-good book. I recommend!

See also: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Enchantress/Spellbinder, Dark Angel, The Chosen, Soulmate, Black Dawn, Witchlight

Plot/originality: 4/5

Characters: 3.5/5

Writing style: 3.5/5

Total score: 11/15

Review: Blood Bound

Blood Bound is Book 2 in the Mercy Thompson series and thus the sequel to Moon Called. New adventure but mostly same old characters, and same old unresolved love triangle. The Adam/Mercy/Samuel thing is starting to get old and tedious, especially since it looks as if it will last a few more books down the series. More on Stefan the mysterious vampiric friend in this book, since the baddie’s a vampire with special powers (wow.) that has nothing better to do than cause havoc in town. New power revealed for Mercy, magic resistance. Something a little overused in this genre, but the explanation here is at least somewhat logical. There is the presence of inter-species politics again, blah blah and could Stefan possibly be a new love-interest? Love square! However, there is no expansion in this area yet. Possibly saving it for the later books. Plot resolution is a tad anti-climatic, and oh, did Mercy make new enemies? Again?

Blood Bound follows pretty much the same formula as Moon Called, and while not exactly fantastic, still keeps to Brigg’s usual style. So if you liked Moon Called, then you would already be reading this. If you didn’t, then don’t read this. If you haven’t read Moon Called, then go read it first. No one likes a book-skipper!

See also: Moon Called, Iron Kissed, Bone Crossed

Plot/originality: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Total score: 8/15

Review: Moon Called

Moon Called is the first book in the Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. As any self-respecting fantasy reader is going to guess, this book, as evident from the slightly clichéd title,  is obviously  going to involve werewolves!  Mercedes, or Mercy Thompson as she tends to be referred to in the book, is the protagonist/ heroine, a car mechanic and surprisingly, not a werewolf. She is, however, a coyote shapeshifter who can see dead people, with the usual magic senses. Mercy barely stops short of MarySue-dom, due to Brigg’s realistic and down-to earth portrayal of her. It also helps that she isn’t exactly a teenager and is thus spared teenage angst.

So, plot-wise, Mercy meets a pathetic young werewolf in need of help and hires him, thus opening the door to more trouble.  Throw in animal experimentation, kidnappings and werewolf and vampire politics and we’ve got everything we need to rock n roll. Not to forget, the ever-present love triangle with animalistic lusts. Between Mercy, Adam, the sarcastic neighbor who also is the local Alpha werewolf (why is it always the alpha?) who happens to both be hot and have the hots for her (like we couldn’t see that coming) and Samuel, an old flame that once wanted her only for her womb (changed his mind now obviously), it does get a tad tedious after a bit.

There are an interesting variety of side characters, with Zee, her faerie ex-garage owner, Stefan, her vampiric friend with weird taste in cars and the usual local werewolf pack with more distinct personalities than most. Briggs manages to fuse the different fantasy elements quite well, creating a believable setting for the happenings of the book.

Overall, the book is not a bad read, it’s refreshing to have an older and practical heroine who isn’t infallible, but Briggs does tend to drone on in descriptions, possibly because this is the first book of the series and the plot is a little thin. I don’t really like the usual bestial sexual attraction that is often obligatory in werewolf fantasies, but it is almost bearable in this book. Characters are mostly well-fleshed out, with some more likable than others - I have almost total dislike for Samuel for his contrived angst, but each to his own. Moon Called isn’t the run-of-the-mill, bodice-ripping paranormal romance, but if you like not-so-heroic heroines, this one’s for you.

See also: Blood Bound, Iron Kissed, Bone Crossed

Plot/originality: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Total score: 9/15